Roman general and politician who was Caesar's lieutenant, delivered the famous funeral oration that turned Rome against the conspirators, formed the Second Triumvirate, and died with Cleopatra after defeat by Octavian — and whose 'Friends, Romans, countrymen' speech in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is the supreme example of rhetorical manipulation.
In Shakespeare's play, Antony's funeral oration is the supreme demonstration of rhetoric's power — he turns the same crowd that applauded Brutus against the conspirators entirely through irony, repetition, and strategic emotional manipulation — making Shakespeare's Antony the practical counterpart to Callicles's theoretical case for rhetorical power.
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